I’m Back!

And what a week it was!  Grab your coffee, it is gonna be a long one!

This was one of my most memorable trips, partly because of the area, partly because of the people I met, but partly because I did a number of different venues, and actually had a day to explore and get some down time.  I just returned from Asheville, North Carolina, where I taught a three day class at Haywood Community College where they have a renowned fiber department, and then I taught a one day class for the Sutherland Handweaving Studio in the downtown arts district.  I already blogged about the wonderful experience at Haywood, so I’ll start with my adventures from Monday (I told you it was gonna be a long one!)

Barb Butler and Karen Donde were wonderful hosts, gathering a group of women to spend the day exploring color.

This is one of my favorite classes I teach as far as great blog photos, there is the wonderful shot of the class sitting around a pile of colorful yarn, playing with them, wrapping index cards, following my exercises.  Because this one was a one day format, I usually teach this in 3-4 hours, I had extra time to add a few additional exercises, one I loved so much I want to try to use it for other classes.  We walked across the street to a hole-in-the-wall eatery called 12 Bones, that had some of the best food, apparently President Obama ate lunch there when he came through Asheville during his campaign, and loved it so much he brought back Michelle after he was elected.  Who knew…  And yes, the food was amazing…   At the end of the

class, participants get to use everything they’ve learned and create a yarn wrap/warp inspired by a photo.  I included some of the

highlights, but they were all wonderful.

Tuesday I spent the day with two delightful women Tina Feir (her site appears to be down) and Lisa Klakulac, and we judged the 2010 Blue Ridge Fiber Show.  There were some 170 entries, and it was a daunting task, but we worked through the very organized and well laid out tables of fiber entries, touching and examining and talking together, Lisa, Tina and I all seemed to be on the same page, and I appreciated their feedback and dialog.   The show is installed at the North Carolina Arboretum, my only regret is that I didn’t spend time wandering around this amazing venue.  Just walking down to the drive where Barb would be picking me up netted me some wonderful inspiration including Martin Webster’s Hedge Against Extinction.  I wish I had found the name of the artist who created the colorful fabric Birds of Paradise.  I won’t

say anything here about the show itself, since I still have to write my juror’s statement and get that to the committee ASAP, but I hear that one of the committee members present at the judging took some photos and posted them on her blog.  It is actually a great post.

Wednesday was one of those rare treats I get to experience in my travels, usually I fly in, teach and then fly out on the earliest flight possible.  The only flight I could book was very late in the afternoon, so Barb graciously spent the morning/afternoon with me giving me the highlights of the fiber shopping opportunities in the Asheville area.  OMG!

Anyone who works with fine fabrics knows about the legendary Waechter’s Silk Shop.  I’ve visited them online, but never had the opportunity to actually visit, and I hadn’t realized it was actually in the Asheville area.  The store front isn’t large, not like a Britex in San Francisco, or one of the places I frequent in NYC in the garment district, but every fabric in the store is top shelf and exquisite.  Silks, woolens, bamboo, linen, lots of Italian fabrics, it was hard to know where to look first, and even harder to know what to take home.  So I did what any self respecting fiber addict would do, I went right for the remnant basket.  I carefully took every little rolled up bundle out of the basket and read the label.  I like remnants because they are 1) cheaper (most were 40% off) and 2) they are pre-cut, the decision is made as to how much yardage there is, so my job is to make it work into something and that is much more challenging and fun, and of course I end up buying more!  Some of the prints needed to be unrolled to understand how truly gorgeous they were.  I got the curious whiff of burning plastic when they ran my credit card through the machine.  I will eventually take a photo of my $350 haul, but they graciously offered to ship it all home for me at no extra charge since I bought so much.  I’m anxiously waiting for Mr. Postman…

Barb and I headed to Bellagio, an art to wear gallery, well known in the handwoven/fine craft community, my friend Candiss Cole sells her work there, along with many other names I’ve known for years.  We tried on gorgeous garments, scarves, jewelry, and because of the damage I did at Waechter’s, I settled on a lovely scarf (like I need more of them…) and Barb invested in a gorgeous jacket from Susan Neal.  We headed to lunch at a very busy Corner Kitchen, another famous stop of the Obama’s.  The feta cheese potato salad was to die for, and I got a side of fruit salad marinated in lime juice, honey and basil of all things.  OMG!  The sandwich was fabulous too.

It was raining heavily when we started for the airport, I was concerned if I would actually get out of Asheville Wednesday night, but only mildly concerned, since I had my Happy Bag and I was happily knitting on the second sock, and by the time I touched down in Newark, I had rounded the heal, picked up for the gusset and was now well into the foot of the sock.  Life doesn’t get any better than that.

Then I came home…

As wonderful as the trip was, and as memorable my day off exploring fiber experiences was, my first day back to reality was a cranky miserable disaster.  I will say first that I am always cranky when I first re-enter reality.  There is so much to do, to catch up on, not only in my studio, but my house.  My husband has been in Saudi Arabia on an unexpected extended job, and that left my two young adult children to fend for themselves.  They are both wonderfully competent kids, my 20 year old son of course has done his stint in boot camp and artillery training, and is awaiting deployment sometime next spring, so he hangs in the basement and keeps things moving forward as much as a 20 year old guy can.  (Insert eye roll here…)  Still, with his father overseas, he is what I have at the moment to hold it all together.  I took advantage of my husband’s and my extended absence and hired a contractor, who is also a personal friend, to do some much needed repairs, renovations, and to also sort of keep an eye on the house.

Larry does great work and what I love about him, is he is a jack of all trades, so no matter what I throw at him, he can handle it.  First let me mention that my husband and I bought a very old house, built sometime at the turn of the last century, so it is well over a hundred years old.  We bought this house in 1982, and have gone room by room, gutting and renovating it, new wiring, new plumbing, new everything, but sadly that was about 15-20 years ago. We did almost all of the work ourselves, and I mean all of it.  We aren’t experienced contractors, just your average handy home owners.  My husband, a former pole climber for the telephone company in a former life, is experienced at wiring, sweating a solder joint, and anything that has to be done inside a wall.  And me, the art school graduate, can at least paint and sort of spackle, and accurately measure and cut trim, and of course having a house that is as old as it is, presents some horrific challenges, nothing is plumb, and no amount of creative woodworking will make it that way.  So we did the best we could over the years, and created a place, along with a few additions along the way, that we are both proud of and has cheerfully helped us raise our children and provide a comfortable well lit workspace where I’ve developed a business I’m proud of as well.

Enter Larry.  There comes a point in life, that one says, yep, I’ve done that, but I’m really tired and don’t want to do it again.  Larry is actually a contractor, and knows how to do all things right the first time.  So Larry and I’ve had to come to an agreement that when he sees something that was not done the right way, or the best way, or the proper way, that he can’t keep saying, “…whoever did this didn’t…”  Because “whoever” would be my husband and me!  So Larry has come to respect what my husband and I actually did do, and his job is to make it all right in the end.  There is lots of eye rolling I’m sure, but I adore him for understanding that this house was a work of love, my husband and I built it from the inside out, and our lives are intimately intertwined in the walls and every stick of antique or handcrafted furniture or artwork.

That said, one of Larry’s jobs was to redo the guest room.  Which is right across the hall from my studio.  Since I was gone for a week, it made sense to pile everything into my studio.  I’ve managed to climb over all the large heavy furniture from the guest room to actually get to my desk to write this blog, do some paperwork, pay bills, and catch up on some things, but that’s all I can do in here, right behind the back of my chair is a wall of furniture, a sideways bed, a huge wardrobe (there are no closets in an old house) and I am not responding well to this situation.  Larry is almost done, it is the little things that seem to go on endlessly, and he is trying to re-tile my bathroom shower floor, so he is back and forth between rooms, and of course he is also trying to finish up the vestibule, so the contents of that little area are all over my living room, and my house is basically a disaster.  I’ve managed to clean up the kitchen, the kids did an OK job keeping it fairly tidy, but the floor is a muddy mess, mostly due to the fact that 1) we have a dog, and 2) we are experiencing monsoon rains from hurricane Nicole, it has rained torrents since I stepped off the plane in Newark and it is suppose to continue on into tonight.  I’m doing the basement flood watch, for trickles of water coming in where they shouldn’t, and hoping we come out of this dry and intact.

Yesterday was just one of those days.  The house was a construction zone, there was gum smeared all over the inside of the drum of my dryer.  (Note to son… Check pockets first before doing the laundry) After a trip to the grocery store and tossing the sour milk and other oddities from the vegetable bin, I tried to stuff the groceries around the stack of Chinese food containers, accidentally dropping a quart of yogurt on the floor.  Did you know that if a quart of yogurt falls from 5 feet in the air, and lands on its base, that would be right side up, that the force of the landing blows the top off the yogurt container and that the contents can spray upwards of 5 feet and create an arc of yogurt that can span six feet in all directions?  I’m still cleaning up yogurt, lets say that it was a really difficult re-entry, and that bottle of beer last night was really really important…

Stay tuned…